Nairobi, 9 November 2010 (IRIN) – At least 94 people have died, with 201 cases of acute flaccid paralysis reported in the Republic of Congo (ROC), since 5 November. Four cases have been confirmed as wild poliovirus type 1, says the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
“This is because [for the last] 15 years, immunization campaigns have not been carried out due to the country’s political instability. People who were not vaccinated are vulnerable to the polio virus,” Rod Curtis, a communications officer with WHO’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative, told IRIN.
Most affected are people aged between 15 and 72.
Improving water and sanitation practices can help but in an emergency situation like this, one of the fastest and most effective ways of stopping the outbreak is through cross-border mass immunization because of population movements, said Curtis.
Polio is an acute viral disease mainly affecting children under five that may attack the central nervous system and is characterized by symptoms ranging from a mild non-paralytic infection to total paralysis in hours.
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